1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to methods and devices for guiding landing tubular members, such as strings of production tubing, within a receptacle within a wellbore.
2. Description of the Related Art
When sections of production tubing are run into a wellbore, they are often landed into a liner hanger or a packer to interconnect them with previously run sections of production tubing. A seal assembly is secured to the lower end of the production tubing string being run that will create a fluid seal with a receptacle in the packer or liner hanger. However, a problem associated with landing the seal assembly into the receptacle is that the entry to the receptacle is substantially-centered in the wellbore. If the wellbore is deviated, the seal assembly will tend to engage the edge of the receptacle instead of entering it. In order to correct the problem, it is often necessary to axially reciprocate and/or to rotate the production string in order to achieve proper seating. This operation is time consuming and costly and may be difficult to do if production tubing is being run from a floating rig that is prone to sea-induced motion or is equipped with control lines or cables for various completion accessories. Thus, techniques have been sought to guide the seal assembly into a proper seating within the receptacle.
Previous landing arrangements have featured a muleshoe that is secured to the lower end of the seal assembly. In this type of arrangement, a beveled kickover lug is fashioned onto the outer surface of the end of the muleshoe to help guide the tip of the muleshoe into the opening of the receptacle. This type of arrangement has been used, for example, in the Model S-22 Multiple Acting Indicator Seal Assembly available from Baker Oil Tools of Houston, Tex. This arrangement works well for the majority of landing connections to be made. However, because the lug is fixed upon the outer surface of the muleshoe, it can create an eccentricity of the muleshoe that is problematic when running into restricted inner liner diameters or combinations of restricted inner liner diameters. Additionally, the presence of a fixed lug on the outer surface of the muleshoe is not compatible with packers that rely on shifting a collect to retrieve the packer.
The present invention addresses the problems of the prior art.